In delivered remarks during the Ethnic Relations Commission’s (ERC’s) National Symposium held today at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance Dr. Ashni Singh,in noting how important the event was for Guyana in its sixtieth year of independence as a uniquely diverse country, both in race and religion, said it is especially one of the reasons why President Irfaan Ali adopted as the special theme of his presidency, “One Guyana,” intending to highlight and to emphasize in the first instance the country’s oneness, and to build on it.
“Guyana’s diversity is a source of tremendous strength for our country and a strength that we have every intention of leveraging, of protecting, and of deploying in the collective national good,” he added firmly.
Dr. Singh emphasized further that Guyana must never be shy of celebrating and applauding the gains made in this regard as a country, the strengths derived from it and the remarkable opportunities that this unlocks for its people.
Minister Singh then homed in on government’s commitment to equitable national transformation to ensure that the country’s unprecedented economic growth translates into direct benefits to citizens and is distributed equitably across every single background and geographic region.
He thereby reminded responsible political and civic leaders in the country that their unwavering duty is to actively separate rhetoric and soundbites from reality, acknowledging that while significant progress has been made, continuous effort is required to build a completely harmonious state.
On this note, the Minister saluted the architects of the 2001 constitutional amendments which gave rise to a number of important innovations in the Constitution that Government had inherited and subsequently enacted and updated as he pointed to the importance in government’s establishment of the Ethnic Relations Commission.
“Arising out of that 2000 and 2001 period of constitutional reform were a number of important enhancements to our constitutional framework. And one of those was the establishment in the supreme law of our land of a number of commissions, foremost amongst which is the Ethnic Relations Commission,” he said.
He explained further that government is of the firm view that the establishment of the Commission and the work it completed since are most worthy of government’s commendation.
“Most of us are raised in a society that instills in us some core values and I believe it is fair to say that amongst those core values that we have instilled in us, is the value of modesty where are taught that we should not speak too loudly of our successes, of the victories that we score, of the wins that we have achieved, lest we be judged as boastful, irrespective of where our ancestors might have come from, and irrespective of which region we might live in,” Minister Singh added.
He then pointed to Guyana’s extreme diversity with the countries various ethnicities.
“And we know this painful history that generations of our ancestors endured, from the times of the earliest settlement of Guyana and the arrival of the earliest of our people.
Notwithstanding these hardships, and the cruelty and difficulties of the circumstances in which they arrived-all of our ancestors arrived and laboured for generations, centuries, and decades—I believe that it is fair to say that they managed collectively to forge a really remarkable and diverse Guyana. And it is a diversity that we must not be shy to flaunt and to celebrate,” the finance minister posited.
Dr. Singh further emphasized the way in which all of the ethnicities live together in cohesiveness and harmony notwithstanding all of their historic distinctions.
“We have a duty to salute all of the previous generations of Guyanese of every background who contributed in whichever way they did, and however they did it, in getting us to this point today where we are, in fact, a richly and beautifully diverse, kaleidoscopic tapestry that comprises modern Guyana,” he said further.
The Minister’s remarks formed part of the national symposium held today under the theme: ‘Guyana at 60-unity, diversity and the path forward’ as part of the celebration of Guyana’s sixtieth anniversary as an independent nation. The forum also saw feature remarks delivered by United Nations Resident Coordinator in Guyana Ms. Jean Njeri Kamau, members of the ERC and the Parliamentary Opposition. Former President Donald Ramotar, Minister of Labour and Manpower Planning, Keoma Griffith and Minister in the Ministry of Local Government, Pauline Sukhai were also in attendance.